It is known in the prior art to provide a glove box door which closes an opening in the instrument panel. The glove box door is hingedly mounted to the instrument panel for pivotal movement between a closed position and an open position. A latch assembly is provided for holding the glove box door in the closed position.
Typically, the latch assembly includes a striker mounted to the instrument panel structure and a latch claw assembly mounted to the glove box door for trapping the striker when the glove box door is in the closed position. The latch claw assembly also serves to release the striker to permit the glove box door to be moved from the closed position to the open position. Prior art latch assemblies which have a latch assembly and a latch claw assembly require additional components. More specifically, the use of the striker in the assembly requires certain components to be used and the conventional latch arrangements allows for potential deficiencies with the build of the door caused by tolerance stack-up and build variation between the latching mechanism in the glove box door and the striker in the upper instrument panel. More specifically, a stack-up problem is caused by variance in the lateral and longitudinal location of the conventional glove box door in the closed position resulting in the glove box door not always fitting flushly within the instrument panel opening. Furthermore, the conventional glove boxes are often one side specific in that the glove boxes are either suitable for right hand side or left hand side.
It is therefore desirable to provide a latching assembly which has fewer parts and eliminates the deficiencies and disadvantages of the prior art.